Program 53: The Paper Industry in Minnesota and the United States in the 1930s. Charles Blandin's plan to end the Depression.

A radio series produced by historian Don Boese. Don is the author of eight books dealing with local history in Itasca County, including "John C. Greenway and the Opening of the Western Mesabi", and the main source for this series, "Papermakers: the Blandin Paper Company and Grand Rapids, Minnesota".

Grand Rapids musician, Jed LaPlant, is out with a new album now, I'll See You Again. His first release, the lyrics throughout are heartfelt, authentic and also otherworldly, the production is spare but rich, and in spite of only singing for the past 4 years, the vocals are on point.

He sat down with us and was ready to speak candidly about creating this album, losing his father, Don LaPlant, taking a road trip out west, and finding his voice. Listen to the interview below.

A northern Minnesota winter can be hard on apple trees. In my case, when the snow melted it revealed that two of our trees were completely “girdled” and a third was partially eaten. Girdling kills trees. It means that something (vole? rabbit?) had gnawed off the bark around the entire trunk of two trees in a swath about 2” wide.

Opioid drug use is expanding in rural communities. There is a series of community forums being offered in Itasca, Northern St. Louis, Aitkin and Pine Counties in Minnesota to help find community based soluitions to the problem. Host Grant Frashier attended the first meeting held in Keewatin and tgalked with Kelly Chandler with Itasca County Public Health.

Each week Sarah and Heidi pull up a chair to one of our member’s kitchen tables and get to know them a little bit better. This week’s caller, some guy named Johnny Bauer shared his breakfast in an Airbnb outside of Nashville.

“We deserve every kind of wonderfully done human endeavor that anybody else deserves. We are able to go to good movies. We are able to get books at the library. We are able to watch all the things on television that are any good… We have a wonderful radio station that enlightens us.

In Southeast Asia's only landlocked country, the Mekong River is a lifeline. From a slow boat heading up the river in Laos, you'll see fishermen working in their boats, riverside farms where bananas grow, and domesticated buffalo lazing. Occasionally a ferry chugs by. From time to time, steps leading to a riverside village become visible on the banks through the foliage. The wind is swift, and the brown fresh water laps up onto the side of the boat.

Just over 9 miles north of Luang Prabang, a startling aberration appears: five giant concrete pylons rising out of the water.

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